VALUING THE CONTRIBUTION OF ART.
A few quotations from Rudolf Steiner will indicate how he felt this to be a compelling social need
of modern times:
"We need today to bring about the marriage between life and art which,
however, can flourish only in the soil of a free life of spirit. . . . Imagine every schoolroom, not
decorated in the way often thought artistic today, but shaped by an artist in such a way that each
single form is in harmony with what his eye should fall upon when the child is learning his
tables. Thoughts that are to be socially effective cannot work socially unless, while they are being
formed, there flows into the soul as a side-stream of the spiritual life what comes from a really
living environment. For this, however, art needs to take a quite different course during children's
growing years from what is now accorded it." A Social Basis for Primary and Secondary Education
"Do we not see how art has lost its connection with life? . . . We see how
inartistic our everyday surroundings have become. Art has made an illusory progress. All the
buildings around us with which we come in contact in our daily routine are as devoid of artistic
beauty as possible. Practical life cannot be raised to artistic form because art has separated from
life." (The Social Future)
"All the atrocities which surround us in any city of Europe we may happen to be in, would
vanish if only we would cultivate for a few generations the sense of beauty which lives unspoiled
in every child." Steiner, Lectures to Teachers
Could artlady please add/create this page!!
A few quotations from Rudolf Steiner will indicate how he felt this to be a compelling social need
of modern times:
"We need today to bring about the marriage between life and art which,
however, can flourish only in the soil of a free life of spirit. . . . Imagine every schoolroom, not
decorated in the way often thought artistic today, but shaped by an artist in such a way that each
single form is in harmony with what his eye should fall upon when the child is learning his
tables. Thoughts that are to be socially effective cannot work socially unless, while they are being
formed, there flows into the soul as a side-stream of the spiritual life what comes from a really
living environment. For this, however, art needs to take a quite different course during children's
growing years from what is now accorded it." A Social Basis for Primary and Secondary Education
"Do we not see how art has lost its connection with life? . . . We see how
inartistic our everyday surroundings have become. Art has made an illusory progress. All the
buildings around us with which we come in contact in our daily routine are as devoid of artistic
beauty as possible. Practical life cannot be raised to artistic form because art has separated from
life." (The Social Future)
"All the atrocities which surround us in any city of Europe we may happen to be in, would
vanish if only we would cultivate for a few generations the sense of beauty which lives unspoiled
in every child." Steiner, Lectures to Teachers
Could artlady please add/create this page!!